Coffee in hand, song in his heart
Starbucks barista builds dream career as opera tenor
Tenor Neal Ferreira launches into an aria from the opera “Ariadne auf Naxos’’ and his audience turns toward him, smiling and a little awestruck. Well, except for the woman busy digging for change at the register, and the guy behind her in line who doesn’t even take out his earbuds. Cue the coffee grinder.
It’s lunchtime at the
He has worked at Starbucks for four years this week, but now he can say of his singing career, “it feels like things are really taking off.’’
Ferreira, 29, has only a small turn in “Ariadne,’’ and the aria is from a major role he is understudying — covering, in opera parlance.
But he has a significantly larger part in the Lyric’s next production, “Idomeneo,’’ and he already has roles lined up there for next season, as well as a run in “The Tales of Hoffmann’’ at the Florida Grand Opera.
In spring 2011 he’ll sing Snout in the Lyric’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’’
“I’ve never been booked this far out in my life,’’ he said.
His days as a barista may be nearing an end.
“I’ll be very sad to see him go, but it’s what he’s been working for,’’ said Starbucks store manager Catarina Ferreira, who is not related. Having him sing at work is “crazy, awesome’’ she said, and while not exactly standard Starbucks fare, it helps build the customer experience, just like the way he remembers everyone’s names and drinks.
“He’s truly part of this community,’’ she said.
The part in “The Tales of Hoffmann’’ looks like Ferreira’s big break after numerous performances in the Lyric’s chorus. He debuted his dual role as Andrés and the red-haired scientist Spalanzani at the Lyric in fall 2008 and was hired to reprise it for Opera Colorado in fall 2009. He also received the 2009 Stephen Shrestinian Award for Excellence, which the Lyric presents to chorus members who have demonstrated promise for continued professional achievement.
“He has a beautiful voice, and he’s also a terrific artist and dedicated to his profession,’’ said Esther Nelson, the opera’s general and artistic director. “When he sang for us in ‘Tales of Hoffmann,’ it was also clear that he had terrific comic timing.
“For professional opera companies, you don’t find the same singers season after season,’’ said Nelson. “We’re very pleased that he is a local and hope to use him frequently.’’
It took a long time for him to get to this point, as it often does.
“To be a good opera singer is talent, dedication, passion, and a lot of stick-with-it,’’ said Nelson. “It’s a long haul.’’
Ferreira’s long haul began in Warwick, R.I. A student musician, he first got on stage and sang in a junior year production of “Godspell’’ at Bishop Hendricken High School. Music teacher and jazz musician Richard Price came up to him after one show.
“He’s like, ‘Yo man, I saw you up there on that stage doing that thing, and I looked in your eyes, and . . . that’s what you’re supposed to do,’ ’’ Ferreira said. “And I was like, ‘Wow!’ ’’
He went to Providence College, but it took him a while to get serious about singing. A supportive teacher named David Harper gave him and another student tickets to see “Così fan tutte’’ at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
“People are singing this beautiful music and pouring their hearts out on stage and I was totally swept up in it,’’ he said. “We were standing out in front at Lincoln Center, and I was like, ‘This is unbelievable! I want to be here!’ ’’
Ferreira started taking care of his voice, practicing and studying, and earned a graduate degree at New England Conservatory after graduating from Providence. Then came the real world.
“I had a terrible first audition for the BLO,’’ said Ferreira, who was still living in Rhode Island at the time. “I was coming up from Providence, and the train in front of us broke down, and we sat on the tracks for an hour and a half in, like, the woods of Stoughton, and I couldn’t get a [cellphone] signal.
“I finally got there, made it to my audition well over an hour late. I was hot and sweaty, and as soon as I got there, they were like, ‘C’mon in, Neal,’ and I was out of breath and sang terribly and obviously felt like I made an awful first impression. But a few months later they called me and asked me to be in the chorus of ‘Thaïs.’ And from that point on I was hired for almost every opera they did that had a chorus for the next 3 1/2 years.
“Of course after a while I kind of felt like I was biding my time, and ‘When am I going to get my break?’ ’’
Enter “Hoffmann.’’
Ferreira lives in Newburyport with his wife, Devan, who is greenhouse manager at Russell Orchards in Ipswich, and their sons Lucas, 2, and Oliver, 4. In addition to the BLO and Starbucks, he teaches voice at the Musical Suite in Newburyport’s Tannery marketplace.
“I feel like I’ll find my niche,’’ he said. “Successwise, I want to make a living at this. I started working as an actor when I was like 17. And I have never not had two, three, four jobs to make it work. It was always going from one job to another job to rehearsal. Now I work at Starbucks and I teach and I have two kids and a wife and a busy family life. . . . I’m looking forward to the point that this is what I do, that performing for a living and being on stage is my one job.’’
